Honda Amaze vs Maruti Swift Dzire

The driving position is near perfect. The dashboard cowl is low, so there’s great visibility forward, the controls (gearshift, clutch, throttle, steering) need less effort to use than the Dzire, and the seats are nicely contoured. Still, we did find them lacking slightly on shoulder support.

The Dzire’s front seats are better. The cushioning is superb, the bolstering is snug and the driving position is good as well. However, the dashboard is a touch too close and the dark insides don’t give you the airy ambience of the Amaze. The Dzire’s dashboard really feels a cut above the Amaze’s. From the V-shaped centre console which houses the electronic climate control (on the ‘Z’ versions) and the two-DIN integrated audio system to small details like the smart-looking air-con vents.

In the back, however, the Dzire doesn’t have as much legroom as in the Amaze. The small windows and the all-black cabin add to the feeling of claustrophobia. 

The Amaze’s wheelbase is, incredibly, 25mm shorter than the Dzire’s, but there’s more space inside thanks to Honda’s clever packaging. The dashboard has been pushed forward as much as possible to maximise cabin space and the front seats are slim, making for more rear passenger legroom. The chauffeur-driven will appreciate the legroom, headroom and the sense of space you get thanks to the beige fabrics and big windows. The rear seats themselves are very comfortable, with superb cushioning and great support.

The Amaze’s well-shaped 400-litre boot will let you squeeze in a bit more.

Both cars come with two airbags, USB connectivity, alloy wheels and remote locking, but the Dzire offers a bit more – it’s got climate control and a CD player. The only feature that the Amaze has over the Dzire is electric folding mirrors.

Also, the Dzire feels the more solidly built of the two.

The Dzire’s 1248cc Multijet diesel has noticeably more turbo lag, and you have to wait till about 1800rpm before the turbo boost kicks in with a full 19.3kgm of torque. This surge of power makes the Dzire feel quick, despite its 25bhp disadvantage. It also revs a lot more (5200rpm redline) than the Amaze’s Earth Dreams engine, but power tails off over the last 1000rpm.

In normal traffic, the Multijet’s (or DDiS as Maruti calls this engine) biggest weakness is its lethargy at low revs. You have to work the gear lever a lot and keep the engine well above 2000rpm to get it to perform best. The Amaze, on the other hand, shoots ahead smartly with just a flex of your foot, its bigger displacement also giving it that slight edge in bottom-end torque. The gear ratios are well-matched and allow you to surf a nice wave of torque through all the gears. Though the Dzire posted better in-gear acceleration times in our standard tests, thanks to its shorter gearing, in the real world, the Amaze does the job better. Take for instance short bursts, like from 40-60kph in third gear, which is what you might typically do in the city, or 80-100kph in fourth for a quick overtaking move on the highway – for both these increments, the Amaze is noticeably quicker.

In our flat-out acceleration tests, the Amaze, as expected, was quicker, hitting 100kph in 12.97sec, which is half a second ahead of the Dzire. It would have been faster if it wasn’t for the 2000rpm rev-lock (if the car is stationary) that Honda has imposed to protect the engine. The rev-lock makes it difficult to get a good launch off the line – which is a big disadvantage to acceleration times. Press on to 140kph and the Amaze extends the gap with the Dzire, arriving at this mark a good 3.2 seconds earlier.

The Amaze’s diesel engine is quite noisy and there’s a noticeable diesel drone always present, especially when you accelerate hard. It’s also not the smoothest engine around and slight vibrations creep up through the pedals and the steering wheel. The Dzire’s engine is much smoother and quieter right through its rev range.

Honda claims the Amaze diesel is the most efficient car in the country, and our tests have confirmed that – it returned 15.2kpl in the city and 20.8kpl on the highway. These figures are incredible when you consider that the 1.5-litre motor produces a very healthy 98.6bhp. But the Dzire is not that far behind, and returned an impressive 14.6kpl and 19.8kpl for the same cycles. But it has a much bigger 42-litre fuel tank than the Amaze’s 35 litres. So, the Maruti will travel nearly a 100km more than the Honda on a full tank of fuel.

If anything, the Amaze’s cabin feels less insulated than the Dzire’s and lets more ambient noise in, especially on coarse surfaces. There’s noticeably more tyre and wind roar.

So while both cars have their strengths and have some key advantages over each other, overall, the practicality and user-friendly nature of the Amaze makes it the winner.